Putting Food By

I've learned a lot living our Log Cabin Life...but I have to say that learning how to preserve the foods we have grown in our garden and the wild edibles we've found (purchased produce as well) has been one of the more rewarding things I've done here.  Old timers called it putting food by...long ago folks grew and raised almost everything they ate (traded some too)...nothing was wasted, and they put food by to ensure they could eat throughout the winter months.    

My most recent attempts have been Pear Preserves (from the vintage Ball Blue Book, a perfect book for beginners)...

 ...and Dilled Beans (from the Preserving book by Pat Crocker I mentioned a few days ago)...

...we haven't tried either yet, but they look good...can't wait to try them.

I canned so many things that I asked Johny to build me a shelf we could put in the basement (they need to be stored in a cool dark place)...it's great and I can store all the empty jars still to be filled with goodness, and my canning pots...pretty nice, huh?  When we talked about how big I wanted it to be, I thought this would be big enough...perhaps I should have thought further ahead, I might need another one!

I've made pickled beets, canned carrots, French beans with tomato sauce (click the link to learn more about them...they are quite good but I don't think I'll be canning those again, too much work, I could just make the recipe when we want to eat them and skip the canning...I'd also skip the French cut, LOL!), my cinnamon applesauce, canned green beans, Dilled green beans. 

I've also blanched and frozen more green beans, strawberries, blueberries and roasted green peppers.  I'll be freezing fresh tomatoes from now on too as an alternate to canned...too easy not to!

And I've made lots of jams and leather britches....you can see the beans hanging and how they've begun drying since I made them, click on the link to see them when I started...

What do I appreciate most about putting food by?  So much to share with family and friends...so much to enjoy as the winter months make us yearn for freshness...so much satisfaction when eating things with no preservatives...so much fun sweating in the kitchen (well, that's sort of true...I don't like the sweating, but I really enjoy the process)...

Do you put food by?  Do you enjoy it? 

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise


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